Mormon 9

If I were to pick a theme for this chapter it would be unbelief, unbelief in a God who reveals himself to man through revelation and unbelief in a God who performs miracles. One of his points of logic is, if God can create an earth and all of its life, why would he be incapable of miracles? The fact that he created these things is proof he is a God of miracles because life in and of itself is a miracle. God hasn't stopped being capable of miracles. He doesn't change. According to Moroni, if God were to change his nature, he would cease to be God. I personally believe that people cannot or do not experience miracles because of one of two things. They have lost their belief and faith in God so that miracles do not seem to occur. Or they do not see and recognize the miracles that happen around them. I believe that miracles are very easily explained away. They can be explained away as coincidence or as a natural occurrence. I don't believe in coincidences. And I also believe that the Lord uses natural occurrences to work miracles. I also believe we shouldn't be to quick to pat ourselves on the back when good things happen to us. We often put ourselves in a position for things through our hard work and effort. But how we do we know that it was our efforts that brought about the final outcome? I think the Lord moves things about in our lives far more than we realize. And with revelation, why would God spend 4,000 years giving revelation and revealing himself to prophets and then stop cold and never do it again? Doesn't make sense to me.

Three other things are worth noting in this chapter. Moroni says, "Be wise in the days of your probation; strip yourselves of all uncleanness... " That's such important counsel for our day and age. Another favorite verse of mine is verse 31. I think this is a great verse for when we want to criticize for legitimate reasons. "Condemn me not because of mine imperfection, neither my father for his imperfection... but rather give thanks unto God that he hath made manifest unto you our imperfections, that ye may learn to be more wise than we have been." That takes restraint and maturity. And finally, we learn a little tidbit about the plates that Moroni is engraving on. He says that were they large enough, they would have written in Hebrew. But because of the lack of space, they had to write in what we know is a reformed Egyptian. Since no one knows that language as it probably evolved over the thousand years since Nephi, Moroni says that a means will be provided by the Lord so the right person can translate the plates.